Mike Pence Might Be a Cigarette Dressed Up as a Person

Mike Pence Might Be a Cigarette Dressed Up as a Person

Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 20.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Tonight is the vice-presidential debate; one issue that might come up—and which would be getting more attention if this were a normal general-election campaign and not an insane nightmare punishment inflicted by pagan gods—is that Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence has some pretty extensive ties to the tobacco industry, which ThinkProgress documents here. A rundown:

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His father was an executive for the "Tobacco Road" chain of gas/cigarette/convenience stores and his brother was later its president; Pence himself owned stock.

He's gotten more than $100,000 in political contributions during his career from tobacco companies.

He voted against the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which passed the House with a large bipartisan majority.